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Chasing Fall Colors

On Saturday morning Amanda and I got in the Jeep and drove south to the San Juan Mountains again. This weekend I was hoping to find some early fall color and had heard a few reports that there were already some nice colors around Red Mountain Pass and Silverton. Those reports would turn out to be pretty accurate!

On our way to Silverton we took a quick drive up to the Portland Mine above Ouray. While we were up there Amanda spotted a few aspen trees that had some bear claw marks. Some of the scratches went up pretty high on the trees like a bear had climbed a few of them.

We didn't stick around Animas Forks long since there were a lot of Hummers parked there, but I did find the time to get another photo of the Duncan Residence. I can't seem to drive by this one without taking a picture.

As we crossed over California Pass we couldn't stop because there were so many Jeeps parked up there. Apparently there was a Jeep Jamboree based out of Ouray this weekend. We also got stopped by a another large group of Jeeps from the Jamboree at Hurricane Pass.

As we climbed up to Hurricane Pass I took this photo of Lake Como and Poughkeepsie Gulch below.

When the sun was down we drove back into Silverton to get some dinner from the Brown Bear Diner and then went back to camp to get some sleep. After a cold night in the tent (we stayed nice and warm in our sleeping bags) we drove up to Little Molas Lake to watch the sunrise.

Early sunlight strikes the top of a few unnamed 12,000 foot peaks near Little Molas Lake. There were no clouds in the sky this morning.

After leaving Silverton, we stopped back at our campsite to take down our tent and pack the Jeep and then headed back home. Amanda had a wedding to go to in the early afternoon, so we couldn't stick around too late.